A Body on Mt. Everest, a Mystery Half-Solved

In the early hours of June 8, 1924, a 38-year-old British schoolteacher named George Mallory set forth with Andrew Irvine, a 28-year-old Cambridge student, from their canvas tent pitched 26,800 feet high on the northern slope of Mount Everest.

Their 33-pound oxygen tanks, primitive and heavy by space-age standards, worked well enough. After a spring of terrible conditions, the new day dawning, Mallory reported through a sherpa, offered ''perfect weather for the job'' -- a first ascent of the world's highest mountain.

Asked earlier why he wanted to climb Everest, he had famously replied, ''Because it is there.''

But on their summit attempt, Mallory and Irvine vanished, last seen by Noel Odell, a teammate who reported spotting two tiny ''objects'' moving across a distant slope about 2 P.M. before the mist swallowed them.

Last Saturday, 75 years later, five young climbers retracing the route said they found Mallory's body lying on a windswept ledge at about 27,000 feet. But their discovery fell short of resolving the persistent question of whether the two men were the first to ascend Everest, 29 years before Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay stood atop the mountain in June 1953. And no one yet knows if Mallory and Irvine met their end ascending or descending the 29,028-foot-high mountain.

Subzero temperatures and dry air have left the body well preserved, though details have yet to be made public. Eric Simonson, the leader of the Mallory and Irvine Research Expedition, announced only that ''the remains were conclusively identified.''

According to other reports in climbing circles, Mallory's leg was broken and his shoulder damaged, suggesting that a fall must have contributed to his death. He was tied to a length of climbing rope. Mallory's snow goggles, worn to protect his eyes from the blinding glare of sunlight on snow, were reportedly found in his pocket; if so, he might have removed them once the sun went down. He was identified from the name on his clothing, one person said, requesting anonymity.

There was no sign of Irvine, but the climbers, who descended to Base Camp to rest up, promise to return for a more detailed search.

''The mystery of Mallory's and Irvine's disappearance is one of the greatest unsolved adventure mysteries of the 20th century,'' said Galen Rowell, a photographer and climber who helped lead an unsuccessful attempt on Everest in 1983 from the Tibetan side, where Mallory and Irvine launched their bid. ''At least part of it is solved,'' Mr. Rowell said, ''and in a week or so when the climbers go back up, we may learn more.''

The discoverers, who are American, have expressed their exhilaration on the expedition's web site, Mountain Zone (www.everest.mountainzone.com).

Conrad Anker, the first climber to spot the body, reported seeing something ''whiter and whiter'' than the surrounding rock and snow. He climbed over and realized what he was seeing was a body, but one that had ''been there for quite a while.'' Gazing down at what he believed to be Mallory, Mr. Anker said, ''He seemed to be at peace with himself.''

Dave Hahn, another member, said the team had expected to find Irvine, but did not explain why. ''And so when we realized that it was George Mallory, we were really blown away by that,'' Mr. Hahn told Mountain Zone. ''We didn't want to disturb him. He'd been lying there for 75 years, but at the same time, boy, we thought, what better tribute to the man than to try and find out if he has summited Mount Everest.''

With wind buffeting them at 27,000 feet, they searched for more clues. Unable to dig a proper grave in the mountain's frozen flank, the climbers, before descending, covered the body with rocks and performed a brief memorial service.

''We covered him up, and then it was just amazing,'' Mr. Hahn said. ''Take one step away from there and you're not worried about George Mallory's life anymore; one step away from him and you're worried about your own life and falling down the North Face.''

Dave Brashears, a filmmaker who has climbed to the summit of Mount Everest four times, called it an outstanding feat for climbers to conduct a deliberate search at such a high altitude and in such forbidding conditions.

''What they did was absolutely tremendous,'' said Mr. Brashears, whose new book, ''High Exposure'' (Simon & Schuster, 1999) chronicles his own unsuccessful attempts to find Mallory and Irvine on the North Col. But he also said that Everest has had its driest season in recent memory, apparently baring the mountain enough to expose the body.

''When they return to that camp, they will be stronger and more acclimatized,'' Mr. Brashears said. ''It will be very interesting to see what they find in their second search.''

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Mr. Brashears said that he could not know how much the climbers had discovered. But he suggested that where Mallory was found ''could only be the site of an accident'' because it lay off their route and several hundred feet below where an ice axe believed to belong to Irvine was found in 1933.

Based on his earlier trips, Mr. Brashears said Mallory's body probably rested on a rock terrace slanting much like a roof. ''It's a natural place for two bodies, or a body, to have stopped its descent,'' he said.

The question of whether Mallory and Irvine died while climbing up or down Everest may only be resolved if the metal Kodak camera they carried is found undamaged, and the film has been preserved by the cold. Mr. Brashears speculated that, because Mallory was something of a celebrity, he might have had Irvine carry the camera, to take his picture when they reached the summit.

John Williamson, a former president of the American Alpine Club, who joined Mr. Brashears on his 1987 attempt to find Mallory and Irvine, said he thinks that the two reached the summit, based on Odell's sighting.

''Had they decided not to go for the top, given who they were, they would have definitely made it down to camp,'' said Mr. Williamson, who is now president of Sterling College in Vermont.

Mr. Rowell, who wrote about Mallory and Irvine in his own book, ''Mountains of the Middle Kingdom'' (Random House, 1984), sounded unconvinced. But he said that present-day climbers admire them as pioneers who attempted Everest ''when mountains were still exploration.''

Mr. Brashears, who filmed the summit with a 42-pound camera for the large-screen IMAX ''Everest,'' agreed that Mallory and Irvine faced a more daunting challenge than mountaineers today because ''every step was a step into the unknown of high altitude physiology, of what's around the next corner.''

Since Mallory and Irvine perished on Everest, about 150 climbers have died trying to ascend the mountain, while more than 600 have reached the top.

Although Everest is generally not considered the world's toughest mountain, it is hazardous for its sheer size and its unique, often unstable weather conditions.

Sir Edmund Hillary, reacting to the news of the discovery of Mallory's body, told New Zealand television that when he climbed Everest in 1953 he had looked for signs that Mallory and Irvine had been there first, but failed to find any.

''Personally I would like to believe he got there but I think it's unlikely,'' Sir Edmund said, according to Agence France-Presse.

Rick Millikan, Mallory's grandson, said Mallory had been ambivalent about returning to Everest in 1924 because he had already done two previous expeditions, in 1921 and 1922, and had a young family.

''He kind of got talked into going along on this,'' he said.

But Mr. Millikan, a builder and developer in Berkeley, Calif., and a climber himself, shrugged off speculation over whether his grandfather made the summit.

''I think he would probably agree that it doesn't matter who gets to the top of things first,'' Mr. Millikan said. ''He climbed for the joy of climbing.''

Correction: May 6, 1999, Thursday A front-page article yesterday about an attempt to climb Mount Everest in 1924 misstated the month that Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay reached the summit. It was May 1953, not June. The article also misstated the age of Andrew Irvine, a participant in the 1924 attempt. He was 22, not 28. The article also misspelled the surname of a film maker and author who has climbed to the summit four times. He is David Breashears, not Brashears. Correction: May 7, 1999, Friday A photograph on Wednesday showing Conrad Anker, who discovered a body on Mount Everest last week that is believed to be that of the British climber George Mallory, omitted the credit. The photographer was Galen Rowell and the agency was Mountain Light.